From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Dan Davison Subject: [PROPOSAL] Quick and easy installation instructions Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:33:51 +0100 Message-ID: <87tylcy6gw.fsf@stats.ox.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=43634 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OzrMg-0001Yu-27 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:34:03 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OzrMe-0002n9-LS for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:34:01 -0400 Received: from markov.stats.ox.ac.uk ([163.1.210.1]:37803) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OzrMe-0002mb-Cf for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:34:00 -0400 Received: from blackcap.stats.ox.ac.uk (blackcap.stats [163.1.210.5]) by markov.stats.ox.ac.uk (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id o8QDXvI8025031 for ; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:33:57 +0100 (BST) List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs org-mode mailing list I think that the documentation concerning installation should be made more user-friendly. My impression is that the Org manual makes all this sound much harder than it needs to be, and I suspect that this is an entry-barrier for new Org users. For example, the first thing users encounter in the manual section is an instruction to edit a Makefile. I suggest we provide a "quick and easy installation" section to the manual, that shows people how to start using the latest version of Org-mode without messing about with compilation and installation (I rarely compile and have never "installed" Org-mode). It would also be helpful to include notes on how to find your ".emacs" file. This would involve the following changes to section 1.2 Installation: 1. The first thing it should say would be along the lines of "A reasonably recent version of Org is included in Emacs. Are you sure you need the latest version of Org? If not, skip to the Activation section and start using Org!" 2. Then we should lay out an easy route and a full route: 1. Quick and easy Download, set your load-path and (require 'org-install) Optionally compile (within emacs[1]?) Suggested text below. 2. Full install Based on existing instructions What do people think? Is it just the info files which are the issue? What does a single-user machine gain from installation other than info files? Dan Footnotes: [1] How about including in Org-mode a function `org-compile' based on http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#compiling-org-without-make and `org-reload' Example quick and Easy installation text: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Download the latest version .zip and .tar.gz version are kept at http://orgmode.org/org-latest.zip http://orgmode.org/org-latest.tar.gz 2. Extract the archived files This will create a folder called "org-mode". Let's say that the location of this folder is "~/path/to/org-mode" (for Windows see footnote [1]) 3. Add the following lines to your .emacs file (note that we're pointing to the "lisp" folder *within* the main "org-mode" folder): (setq load-path (cons "~/path/to/org-mode/lisp" load-path) (require 'org-install) That's it. However, this will not install the latest info files, so these will be out of date (corresponding to whatever version of Org shipped with your emacs). See XXXX for instructions on installing the info files. Now, Emacs should load whatever version of Org-mode you put at "~/path/to/org-mode". So to update Org in the future, simply delete that folder and replace it with a new one (steps 1 and 2 above). Footnotes: [1] On Windows, this path might look something like "C:\\path\to\org-mode"